PORTLAND, Maine — The Maine Supreme Judicial Court on Tuesday upheld the conviction of a Washington County man serving a three-year prison sentence for beating his teenage son.
The justices unanimously rejected Stephen Treadway’s argument that his actions were justified under the state’s parental control law.
The ruling was posted on the court system’s website the same day NFL star Adrian Peterson pleaded guilty in Texas to abuse charges in connection with what he claimed was the disciplining of his 4-year-old son using a switch.
Treadway, 33, of Calais, was convicted by a Washington County jury in November 2013 of one count each of assault and domestic violence assault, both Class C crimes. Treadway was sentenced to three years in prison in January due, in part, to his criminal record, which includes previous convictions for assaults, none of which involved this child.
He was convicted in 2005 of a Class A assault on another child who was under six at the time, according to the Washington County district attorney’s office. Six years later, he was convicted of two separate violent felonies, including possession of a firearm by a felon and endangering the welfare of a child who was living with Treadway but was not the teenager in the 2013 case.
Treadway is due to be released in March 2016, according to information on the Maine Department of Corrections website.
Ethan Plaut, the assistant district attorney in Washington County who prosecuted the case, said Wednesday that he was “quite happy” with the court’s decision.
“At trial, the state argued that Mr. Treadway went way beyond Maine’s legal limits for parental discipline with what was really a prolonged and out-of-control beating of his 14-year old son,” Plaut said in an email. “The jury and now the law court agreed.”
Defense attorney Jeffrey Davidson of Machias declined Wednesday to comment because he had not spoken to Treadway about the case.
The altercation that led to the charges took place on Sept. 18, 2013, when the victim was 14 years old, according to the eight-page decision written by Justice Joseph Jabar. Treadway went to the home his son shared with his mother to discuss the teen’s continued use of marijuana.
When the boy’s mother told him to come off the front porch, where he was talking with his father, the teenager refused, the decision said. Treadway picked the boy up and dragged him into the house.
The boy grabbed a necklace his father was wearing, according to court documents. When the son refused to let go of the necklace, Treadway punched the teen in the head and kicked him in the torso.
At the trial, Treadway’s defense was that he was disciplining his child. The jury disagreed and so did Maine’s highest court.
“Pursuant to Maine’s parental-discipline justification, parents may use a
‘reasonable degree of force’ in disciplining their children,” Jabar wrote. “Thus, the use of force that may otherwise constitute an assault may be justified if a parent reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent or punish his or her child’s misconduct.”
The justices found that there was sufficient evidence presented at trial for a jury “to rationally conclude that the parental-control justification was disproved beyond a reasonable doubt.”
The Maine supreme court considered the case on briefs in September but did not hear oral arguments.
Peterson, a running back with the Minnesota Vikings, reached a plea deal on Tuesday with prosecutors in Texas that allowed him to avoid jail time, according to a previously published report.
The 29-year-old pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor assault charge. He must pay a fine of $4,000 and perform community service, under the deal reached in a court outside of Houston.
He had been accused of felony injury to a child. Montgomery County Judge Kelly Case deferred any finding for two years.